The Goblins' not so Fairytale Tale
by Fighting to survive
Summary: Crossover The LabyrinthThe Phantom of the Opera. How much do these two sad love stories, and their antiheros, have in common? More than you think. Rating may go up.
1. Prolog

The Goblins' not so Fairytale Tale

Sarah Kateri

Author's Note: Crossover alert. The Labyrinth/The Phantom of the Opera.

Disclaimer: The Labyrinth is the property of Jim Henson; The Phantom of the Opera is the property of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Really Useful Groups.

Prolog

No two goblins' tell the tale of what happened at the palace beyond Goblin City on the day of Prince Jareth's birth the same way. One goblin, an ugly fellow with warts on his forehead, claims Prince Jareth was born with the body of a man, but the head of a goblin. Another goblin, Knot, tells that little Prince Jareth was ripped in two due to an accidental invitation extended to the Fireys. A third goblin with huge knobby knees thinks Prince Jareth was born with two heads. Goblins, however, are very stupid creatures, and in this case were, unfortunately, the only witnesses to the baby Prince's birth. Rumors were greatly spread by the goblins in the short time between Jareth's birth and Jareth's coming out party. And though the baby Prince was presented flawless and unhurt to the kingdom, the Underground, the goblins' rumors persisted. The King and Queen of the Underground finally stopped the goblins' rumors with threats of casting the next goblin who spoke a bit of crazy gossip, about the happenings at Prince Jareth's birth, into the Bog of Eternal Stench. It wouldn't be for thousands of years that the source of the goblins' outrageous rumors would be recognized, and it would rock the Underground world.


	2. Chapter One: The Phantom of the Universi

Author's Note: Fields Of Gold is not mine, but I'm not really sure who to copyright it to.

Chapter One: The Phantom of the…University of Cincinnati?

_March, 1991 Cincinnati, Ohio U.S.A._

Evelyn "My name is Evey!", Bay sighed with great exaggeration. Evey was bored to tears. Evey's mother Jane, a college professor, sat at her big desk, talking adamantly with one of her grad students. Every once in a while Jane, who was sitting with one leg crossed over the other, would casually lean forward, make a hand gesture, then resume her current position; elbows and forearms flat on the table, hands clasped together.

Jane worked in the University of Cincinnati's Blegian Library. The library was about seventy-five years old, eight stories tall, and filled to the brim with stacks. Book stacks. Evey's one true love was reading. Evey wasn't picky, she'd read anything. It didn't bother Evey a bit that she was only five years old and could only read, and understand, small words. Evey was perfectly content to sit with books all day and stare at the fascinating letters and numbers they contained.

To say the least Evey was much more interested in getting her grubby little hands on just one of the hundreds of books the library contained than in sitting in a chair in her mom's office doing nothing. Evey began to swivel around in what Evey had aptly nicknamed her "Spin chair". Evey then began to kick her legs back and forth after the chair's spinning began gaining momentum. The spin chair started squeaking.

Without halting the conversation she was having with her graduate student, Jane stood up and walked the two or three paces to where Evey was diligently spinning. Jane grabbed the cushioned chair's back; this brought Evey's spinning to an abrupt halt. Jane then gently, but firmly grabbed Evey's arm and began to shoved Evey out the wooden door of Jane's office, and into the student office beyond. Jane closed the door behind Evey. Evey harrumphed, crossing her sparsely freckled arms over her chest. Grumbling to herself about the inconsistency of parents' orders, Evey started to search the small room for something to do.

"Hey there midget!" A purposely high, sickeningly sweet voice gushed from somewhere behind a computer. Seconds later a pale, too thin face with far too much makeup caked on it appeared next to a computer's screen. Evey refrained herself from rolling her eyes, as she's been severely scolded previously by her parents for making the rude eye gesture to numerous other people. Evey couldn't, however, contain her snort of annoyance. Marcie Macmillan. Marcie was her mom's student worker, not that Marcie did much work. Whenever Evey saw Marcie, Marcie was filing her nails, or putting on more makeup.

"I'm _not_ a midget!" Evey informed Marcie in an all important, slightly indignant tone. "Mommy says that you have to be shorter than four foot nine, after puberty, to be a midget."

"But honey cakes, you are shorter than four foot nine." Marcie cooed.

"After puberty!" Evey snapped, tugging at a white-blonde braid impatiently, hazel eyes flashing with annoyance. "Do I look like I'm even close to being at puberty, let alone being past puberty?"

"Whatever honey cakes." Marcie said with a giggle, turning back to her computer. Evey flushed angrily.

'What an air head!' Evey thought, walking to a staircase that was located to her right, within the room's border. Evey stomped down the single flight of stair, sitting on the very bottom step. Evey glared at the white, concrete wall for a good five minuets before her annoyance at Marcie's dumb comment started to dissipate. The small area located at the bottom of the steps was about seven by twelve feet. There was a door directly to the left of the staircase. Evey looked at it longingly. It was always locked, so Evey could only imagine what wonderful things were behind that entrance. Probably books! Evey's mom said it was just storage, but Jane had no sense of adventure in Evey's worldly opinion, and wouldn't recognize something exciting if it smacked her in the forehead. Well, unless it involved saving someone's life. Jane was an EMT.

As Evey always did, Evey walked over to the door. The door was a neutral color, not brown, or tan, or peach, or off-white, or white; something in-between all of those colors. Grabbing the handle, Evey pulled. For the first time in all the years Evey had been coming to University with Jane, a great many to Evey, the door opened. Evey gave a small squeal of delight and stepped over the threshold after tossing a quick glance in the direction of the top of the staircase. The door closed silently behind her. The room behind the door was long, and seemed to stretch on forever. Dusty boxes were piled on top of one another, or on steel shelves. Books and papers littered the storage area as well. Evey squared her shoulders and ventured forward. Evey hadn't gone far, only fifty feet or so, when she slid on a slick spot on the floor. Evey shrieked in surprise as her feet flew out from under her, sending her forward in a stack of metal boxes, earning Evey several bruises, a small cut above her right eyebrow, and a more painful one right below her lower lip.

"Damn it!" Evey yelled from the floor, making fists with her hands and pounding them once against the hard, cold concrete she was laying on. Evey got only a little satisfaction out of shouting the forbidden D word. As Evey shoved herself to her feet Evey saw something that caused her eyes to widen. A secret passage! Evey had discovered a secret passage! There was a simple gray panel, Evey supposed it was there to disguise the passageway, which would other wise blend in with the wall. However a dark, long, narrow passageway was now visible, though the panel still blocked part of the route.

The entrance was currently only being held open by one of the metal boxes Evey had fallen into. Curious Evey used her backside to move the metal box holding the door open out of her was. Evey struggled a little against the panel's weight, no longer held up by the box, and was surprised at how large an opening was revealed with the entire thing out of the way. Kicking a cardboard box out of the way, Evey stepped into the duct, but tried to maintain her hold on the panel. Evey failed. The makeshift door slipped out of the small girl's sweaty palms and slid shut, leaving Evey in complete darkness. Evey froze. Evey hated the dark. Evey began to unconsciously breathe heavily. Evey's heart felt like it had just slammed into her stomach, then jumped back up to her chest where it began thumping so hard Evey could swear she heard her ribcage rattling. Evey immediately spun round and tried to reopen the makeshift door. It wouldn't budge.

'Calm down Evey!', Evey thought to herself. 'Try to find a light switch.' Tears burned the back of Evey's eyes and a huge lump filled in Evey's throat. Evey started making her way down the corridor in front of her, using her hands to feel along the walls, desperate for the familiar feel of a switch. About a hundred feet into the passage the walls began to get further and further apart. Still no light switch. Evey walked into a wall, hard. Sniffling, Evey tried turning to her right. Empty space; Evey could continue forward. Evey repeated this sad performance several times, walking into a wall, choosing a direction, then continuing on, hoping against hope.

"I'm lost." Evey said aloud after about twenty minuets of walking. Evey jumped at the loudness of her own voice in the previously dead silence. Evey's shaking, which she had been experiencing minimally, suddenly grew to teeth chattering proportions. Evey's sobbed. Evey thought she heard a noise just in front of her, and felt the faintest stirring of air. Evey halted. Silence. Evey put her hands over her ears, something she did when she was scared. Then from somewhere ahead there was a light. It was coming closer. Closer. Blinding.

"How did you get here child?" A musical voice asked softly. It was a man's voice. It had a strange quality to it, not like Evey's voice, or Jane's voice, or anyone else Evey knew. Evey didn't honestly care at the moment. Someone had found her! Evey launched herself toward the light, arms opened wide. Evey's arms grasped something solid, though she couldn't really wrap them around it. Evey started to sob.

"I'm sowwy, I mean I apologize! Mommy told me there was nothing in the room but storage, but I didn't believe her, and I was bored, the door was opened, and Marcie was being a dunderhead. Then I fell and discovered this place, but the door closed behind me and I couldn't get it open! Please don't leave me in here!" Evey grasped her rescuer more tightly as it occurred to her that he just might abandon her to the darkness. The man hesitated. Evey squeezed then loosened her arms around what she assumed were the man's legs. "Please!" Evey begged.

"I won't leave you." The man said. Evey sighed in relief, but did not let go her death grip on the man. The man lowered what looked like an old fashioned oil lamp. Evey's eyes adjusted to the softly flickering light.

Evey blinked in puzzlement as her hero's face became visible.

"What's wrong with your face?" Evey asked bluntly. There was a white mask covering the left side of the man's face, and now that Evey was secure in her knowledge that the man was not going to leave her to the darkness Evey's curiosity, which had gotten her into her current troubled situation, as well as a dozen others, came abruptly back to life.

"What's wrong with yours?" The man snapped back. Evey glared at him.

"I already told you. I fell!" Evey snapped in a voice that clearly said "I think you're stupid". "My lip hurts badly." Evey then admitted. Evey stared up into the man's face, realizing for the first time how enormous he was.

"He must be part giant!", Evey thought with excitement. The man had what appeared to be dark brownish-black hair, one blue eye and one brown eye. The man was wearing all black; he reminded Evey of a character from the book Jane was reading to her, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, though Evey was unsure as to why he reminded her of the story. She supposed the man looked like what she pictured in her mind's eye Dr. Jekyll would look like. The man's hair was even long, hanging to his chin.

"I'm not surprised. You have a staple just underneath it. It's bleeding." The man stated, responding to the comment Evey had made about her lip hurting. Evey touched her small hand to her chin. Pulling her hand away from her face, Evey examined her fingertips. Evey's finger's were dripping blood. Evey began to scream, tears spilling down her chubby cheeks. Blood didn't normally frighten Evey, but Evey had never seen so much blood come out of her body. The man look taken aback. Looking at the crying child dubiously, the man paused, then swooped down and scooped Evey up into his arms, careful to not jostle the lamp he was still holding.

"There, there." The man said, awkwardly patting Evey's back roughly. "I'll help you find you're mother. She'll take care of your face." The man walked back toward the direction Evey had come. Evey sniffled softly. The man began to sing softly in Evey's ear. Evey's sniffles subsided.

"You'll remember me when the west wind moves upon the fields of barley. You'll forget the sun in his jealous sky as we walk in fields of gold." The man continued to sing. When he stopped Evey said,

"That song's salacious." The man almost dropped Evey and the lamp.

"How old are you?" The man managed to choke out around his surprise, and laughter.

"Five and one half. I'm in kindergarten but we didn't have school today. Too much snow."

"You should not understand the content of that song at your age enough to tell me that it's salacious." The man said.

"I don't." Evey admitted. "I heard it on the radio. Daddy says it's salacious." The man chuckled. Silence ensued. "What's your name? I'm Evey. Evey Bay." Evey said after a short time. The man said nothing for a full minuet or two. Evey thought he might not have heard her.

"Erik." The man said finally.

"That's a nice name. Erik, can I see what's under your mask?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because."

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty, pretty, pretty…"

"NO!" Erik roared. Evey's eyes bulged in fright initially, then in indignation. No one Evey'd just met had ever yelled at her like that. It wasn't nice. It was mean. Evey glared up at Eric. Evey wiggled out of Eric's armed then yelled,

"FINE!" Evey stomped her foot and spun on her heel, crossing her arms.

Eric stared at the exasperating and perplexing child before him. Evey spun to face Eric. "Well?" Evey said expectantly. Eric looked at her. "Aren't you going to say sorry so we can be friends again?" Eric blinked. Being friends with a five year old girl wasn't exactly at the top of Eric's priorty list, but Evey was a funny little duck so Eric decided to humor her.

"I apologize mademoiselle." Eric said with a small bow. Evey nodded, satisfied, and then threw herself at Eric, who caught her with his one free arm in mid leap. Evey snuggled up against Eric's torso. Eric resumed his walk. Only a few minuets later Eric stopped. Eric activated the device that opened the trap door, then after setting the lamp down, climbed through. "Here you are Evey." Eric said gently. Evey smiled brilliantly up at Eric, gave him a big wet kiss on his unmasked cheek, and hopped out of his arms.

"Wait here Eric!" Evey chirped. Evey ran out of the storage room. Eric slipped back through the trap door. "Momma, momma, momma! Come quick!" Evey shouted as she ran up the staircase. Jane Bay came sprinting out of her office.

"Evey what in God's green earth…Oh my God! Evey what happened?" Evey had forgotten all about her bloody face. Evey stared at her mom's horrified face with puzzlement before she remembered she was bleeding.

"Oh that! Well…" Before Evey could explain Jane had swept Evey into her arms, grabbed her keys, and was heading toward the elevator. "Mom wait! You have to meet Eric! He helped me! Mom you have to meet…" Jane wasn't listening. Later at Children's Hospital, after Evey had received two stitches in her lower lip, Evey once again tried to tell her mother what had happened in the storage room, and beyond. Jane groaned inwardly. Wasn't Evey supposed to be too old for imaginary friends? The next time Evey went into work with her mother she dragged her mom down the staircase so she could show her the passageway, and introduce her to Eric. The door to the storage room was locked; then, and every time after. Evey would not see Eric again for many, many years. But Evey knew, despite what her mother and father told her, that Eric was not a figment of her imagination. Eric was real. And somehow, someday, Evey would find Eric and prove it. What Evey did not know was that, Eric, who was very much a real person, continued to watch her, and protect her as she grew up.


	3. Chapter Two: Life after the Labyrinth

Author's Note: A short chapter. I assume Labyrinth fans will be far more familiar with Sarah then Phantom fans will be with Evey, which is why there's so much less of the chapter two than of chapter one.

Chapter Two: Life after the Labyrinth

_2001 Garrison, New York U.S.A._

Sarah Williams's party was over. Sarah had just conquered the Labyrinth, a huge maze that wound its way through a small part of an alternate world called the Underground. Obsessed with a play called the Labyrinth, Sarah unintentional wished her half-brother Toby away to goblins after her father and step-mother left her home babysitting Toby again. The goblin King then arrived and gave Sarah a choice; a crystal which would show Sarah her dreams, or a thirteen hour trek through the King's Labyrinth. Sarah chose the later. Sarah, however succeeded in defeating the King's Labyrinth, and returned home triumphantly, Toby in tow. Sarah's Labyrinth friend's then gathered in her room where a huge party took place, then later, when it was over, Sarah ran to find her parents, who'd returned home, to tell them of her great adventure.

Sarah always had her head in the clouds, but when Paul and Karen Williams returned home after an evening out to stories of their son's supposed kidnapping compliments of a goblin King and his minions, they believed, and with good reason, Sarah had crossed the border of fantasy world into the realm of insanity. Sarah, however, was insistent. Sarah spoke of goblins, dwarfs, fairies, eye lichens, talking worms, elves, guardians, helping hands, false alarms, a wise man with a talking bird on his head, snappers, a huge hairy beast, door knockers, creatures called fireys, a talking dog who road another dog, a lady with junk on her back, and many other strange things. Paul and Karen did what any other logical persons would do it their situation; Paul and Karen put Sarah in a psychiatric ward.

Sarah had never felt more betrayed in her life. Sarah hadn't even felt as angry and hurt when her mother Linda had left her father, or when Paul had remarried, dashing any hope Sarah had held of Linda realizing her mistake and coming home so Linda, Paul, and Sarah could be a family again. Being sentenced by her father and step-mother to a mental asylum couldn't have come at worse time for Sarah. Not that there is a good time to be placed in an insanity ward, but none worse than puberty.

When Sarah's fourteen year old body began to change, so did her emotions. Sarah found herself getting angry for no real reason constantly. Sarah began to scream at Paul and Karen when they would come to see her during visitation hours, throwing things at them, whatever Sarah could get her hands on. After a particularly violent episode on Sarah's part Paul and Karen told her they would no longer be bringing Toby to the visitations. Sarah had never hurt, or attempted to hurt Toby, and so she raged at Paul and Karen. After they left Sarah sat in her room and cried for an hour. Then Sarah requested to use the restroom where she tried to summon her friends from the Labyrinth. None came. Not even a glimmer of a reflection in the mirror.

"Maybe I am crazy." Sarah whispered to the empty bathroom. After many failed attempts to call her Labyrinth friends to her, Sarah gave up. Sarah had been at the mental hospital for nine months before she decided she'd dreamed the entire Labyrinth episode. Well, her brain told her the only way she'd ever get out of the mental hospital was to give up her Labyrinth adventure. However in the deepest part of her heart Sarah still believed that she had walked the goblin King's Labyrinth, and faced the King himself in a final challenge for her younger sibling. After all, Sarah dreamed of her dance with Jareth in the crystal ballroom every night. The dream was always the same. Surely no one could have a reoccurring dream every night for nine months without fail?

What Sarah couldn't know was that the king of the goblin's who had indeed fallen in love with a girl, had forbidden Sarah's friends from seeing her, knowing the danger that would await Jareth's subjects should they be exposed to modern day mortals.

'It's what has to happen.' Jareth told himself. 'Sarah is too immature to realize what she wants yet. When Sarah's older I'll have her run the maze again, without a child. Then perhaps she will see what it truly is she desires.'

So, after nine months of being in a mental ward, Sarah suddenly began to show a huge amount of mental stubilaty. Sarah no longer insisted that the Labyrinth, and its King, were real. Sarah admitted that she was sure now that she had dreamt the Labyrinth to life, but the Labyrinth was only that; a dream. Sarah apologized to Paul and Karen for violent, raging behavior. Paul and Karen began to bring Toby at visitation sessions again. Sarah was soon released from the hospital. Sarah entered her freshmen year of high school a year late, but made straight A's in all her classes. Though the memories began to fade, and she never spoke of them again, Sarah would never truly forget her trek through the amazing Labyrinth.

As for the Labyrinth's king, Jareth bided his time, waiting until Sarah would truly be ready to take what she wanted in life.


End file.
